Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was doing some reading on Exit International's Sarco pods. The Swiss medical review board has given the green light to these pods, although I am not sure what that might mean. Does Mr. Luley or Professor Boer have any insights into the ethics of these pods? I think they are called Sarco suicide pods.

Reading about them and looking at pictures of them, it does not seem to be a very intimate process. The Swiss have given these pods the green light. Do the witnesses have any thoughts or comments on them in relation to assisted dying?

My second question goes back to gender and is also potentially related to an internalised feeling of being a burden and dependent on care. We heard there are more women and that women may be more this or that. I wonder if it is actually a matter of the care that women provide. We can look at the division of care duties and the role of women in giving care. I wonder when women make that decision - this may be an area on which there has not been any research - if it is based more on who actually provides care. If we look at husbands, sons and the makeup of the family, traditionally it is the women who do this. I do a lot of work in prisons and we see the role women have in providing for men who are incarcerated. It does not matter whether incarceration is for five months or 20 years; the role of mothers, sisters and girlfriends in providing care is usually at a much higher standard than, for example, that provided for women who are incarcerated because the care for those women by their brothers, fathers, sons, etc., drops off. Is the difference in numbers related much less to the women who decide to avail of euthanasia than it is to the care that is on offer to them within the family system? That came to mind when I was thinking about the difference between the two.